More Sharks Endangered, Shark Fin Soup anyone?

“… the hammerhead was among the most endangered species from shark finning because their meat had very low value but their fins were highly prized for the Asian delicacy shark-fin soup.” says Sonja Fordham, Shark Alliance’s policy director.

The Asian fish market is frighteningly bad. Especially the Japanese market.

Shark fin soup is also sited as aiding in the continuing destruction of the Galapagos.

Despite bans on the trade in fins, conservationists believe that in the past five years, the fins of more than 1.7 million sharks have been exported from Ecuador – and the Galapagos region accounted for more than 80% of those.

And what’s worse:

“Shark fin soup is erroneously considered an aphrodisiac or regarded as beneficial to one’s health, although studies have shown no healthful benefits. Ironically, the methods used to prepare shark fin soup reduce the water content of the fin, which concentrates numerous chemical impurities. Shark fins studied at the University of Hong Kong contained 5.84 parts per million (ppm) of mercury, compared to a maximum permitted level of 0.5 ppm. The high presence of mercury was confirmed in independent tests conducted by two state-related labs in Thailand, and the findings are also reflected in US, Australian, and New Zealand governmental reports.

In plain English, this means that eating shark fins could render men sterile due to the high mercury content.”–Closertofree.org

54 responses to “More Sharks Endangered, Shark Fin Soup anyone?”

now sharks have been my favorite animal sense i was five years old. now you jerks have really made me mad for killing these beautuful creature. the shark is now on the endangered list all because u guys want to get fat of them.
i dont care if its legall or illegal it is just pain sick. its almost like slotter.

Im also a big fan of sharks and everytime i read these horrible articles i just want to cry.Anyone who kills sharks just isnt sane!I know sence jaws you all think that sharks are killers,but are they really arent all that bad this is the circle of life people!Yes they do actully have to eat some time or anyther and if you just happen to be swimming along too bad your in their element now!

i think we should not kill the sharks because they are animals that live here.what happens if every one killed us. it is there teratory and they live there so leve them alone because if someone bashed down your house how wood you fill

I am only 15 years old, but I have such a strong passion for the protection of sharks, and the sharks themselves. I think everyone should stop killing sharks, and stop thinking that they are “maneaters”, for they aren’t at all. Sharks shouldn’t have to pay for the mistakes of people thinking that, and for people thinking that their fins, cartilage, etc. can cure diseases. Everyone should watch the documentary “Sharkwater” to have a greater education and understanding for these beautiful, and magnificant creatures, for they don’t deserve to be killed off.

Shark meat, if properly prepared is quite tasty, but the hammerhead is not one of the better species for food. Hunting any animal just to use a tiny fraction of it is wrong at a level I can’t politely describe.

ok, this is just sick and wrong! if this animal is going to be killed (it shouldnt!) then every part should be used! dont let the hunters know but thegrizzly bear just came of the endangered species list! it took 30 years! and now guess what? there open to be hunted again! It took 30 years to put the population in order! hunting should be banned! plus most pepole hunt for the fun of it! thats not right! the only time to hunt is when its life or death!Id ratherdie then kill an animal!
its sick and wrong!

“What a loss, says NMFS fishery administrotor Paul Leach. “The meat of most is good, the hide makes great leather , the liver provides vitamin A, and the cartilage contails oil used in pharmaceutical. Sharks almost never get cancer, which make them valuable for research.”

While I agree with many of the comments posted thus far, some of them seem concerned with the notion of killing any animal. I am not trying to downplay the situation of killing sharks for the dorsal fins, but I am sure that most of the people who have posted comments are not vegetarian. If you say that you are against killing animals, take into account the millions that are slaughtered inhumanely to feed us. Please take your feelings about this situation and apply it to other areas of inhumane treatement of animals so they can all have a voice!

I’m a big fan of sharks and everything, but this Caleb guy makes them seem retarded. look at his grammar/spelling for god sakes. He says he’s loved them SINCE he was five, what is he… ten?
what the hell is slotter…. it is slaughter not slotter!

This is sick and cruel. sharks have been my favorite animal all my life. they are cute and cuddely and all you are doing is murdering them. i am aobsissed with these animal they are misunderstood creatures. this is a shark genocide that needs to stop. NOW!!

I am a animal lover. Not perticularly sharks but they still are apart of our community. If you are about to kill an animal then ask yourself this quistion–
Would I like to be killed and have my house be owned by a murder? Me personaly
I would hate to have a killer be in charge of my house. Plus we all need to be respectful to all of the animals period. and not to mention you are a visitor to there home and you have to respect them. Just think would you go to a strager-
s house or your next door neiboor and kill them just for a pair of shoes that
they have. The ancer is NO you wouldn’t unless you are a killer and want to be sentenced to Jail, and perhaps HAVE to be KILLED. But is it trully worth all
of this trouble for so little.

When I was a little child I was afraid of sharks and my mom and my dad had to do hard work to persuade me to go into the sea near the beach, when we were on vacation. I must admit that till now I was no real shark fan, but now I saw the trailer of sharkwater and I had to cry. The humans are so cruel and not the sharks, but we are the monsters. It makes me angry, knowing that I probably could do nothing against.

~ PEOPLE ARE KILLING THOUSANDS OF SHARKS DAILY AND USING THEM FOR ONLY THERE FINS, MOST SHARKS ARE STILL ALIVE AS THEY THROW THEM BACK INTO THE WATER FINLESS….. SHARKS HAVE LIVED OVER 300 MILLION YEARS ALMOST UNEVOLVED…….SHARKS ARE AN ESSENSIAL PART OF OUR ECOSYSTEM… THEY ARE SHAPING THIS WORLD……..THEY REGULATE THE OCEAN ,PLANKTON FEEDS OFF SHARKS…WE NEED PLANKTON IF WE WANT TO KEEP OUR OCEANS, AND OUR OCEANS REGULATE THE CLIMATE… AND FEED OUR PLANET, GIVE SHARKS THE RESPECT THEY DESERVE…. OVER 80% OF LIFE ON EARTH LIVES IN THE OCEAN, SHARKS RUN THE OCEAN ….SHARKS HAVE SURVIVED ALL 5 MAJOR EXTINCTIONS, THEY ARE ARCITECTS OF OUR WORLD….

~SHARKS ARE THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD CREATURES, THEY ARE SHY AND ARE AFRAID OF HUMANS, THEY HAVE 2 MORE SENCES THAN US, THEY CAN DETECT MOVEMENT BY LATERAL LINES THEY HAVE ON EITHER SIDE OF THEM , AND THIER HEAD IS A HUGE SENSORY SYSTEM THAT CAN DETECT ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS….YOUR HEART BEAT………THEY KNOW IF UR HEART IS BEATING FAST, THEY CAN FEEL YOU…. THEY ARE SOO AFRIAD OF HUMANS THAT IF UR HEART RATE STAYS CALM THEY WONT COME NEWHERE NEAR YOU…THEY DONT WANT TO EAT YOU……..SHARKS ARE KNOWN TO BE SCARY, PEOPLE FEAR THEM BUT THEY ARE AN ANIMAL THAT WE CAN NOT LIVE WITHOUT!!

~ ELEPHANTS KILL MORE PEOPLE A YEAR THEN SHARKS…..EVERYONE WANTS TO SAVE THE PANDAS OR THE TURTLES NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE SHARKS BECAUSE THEY FEAR THEM….. PEOPLE EAT SHARK FIN SOUP AS A EXPENSIVE DELICASY…..PEOPLE TAKE SHARK FIN PILLS BECAUSE THEY THINK SHARKS NEVER GET SICK AND THAT THEY HAVE SOME MAGIC HEALING POWER THAT WILL BE TRANSPHERED TO YOU IF U EAT THEM……..SHARKS CAN GET SICK AND CAN ALSO GET CANCER…BUT THE MARKETERS WOULD NEVER TELL YOU THAT……THERE IS SO MUCH CHEMICALS AND MERCURY IN THE OCEANS NOW THAT EATING SHARK PRODUCTS WILL BE MORE LIKELY TO GIVE U SUCH DISEASES……..

~ SHARK FINNING IS A MASSIVE BUISNESS THAT IS MAKING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, IT IS ILLIGAL TO FIN A SHARK SOLELY FOR ITS FINS……. YET PEOPLE DONT CARE BECAUSE ITS MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS, PEOPLE TRY TO STOP THEM …THEY ARE ARRESTED BY FORIGN POLICE…..THEIR GOVERNMENTS IGNORE ILLEGAL FINNING BECAUSE IT MAKES THEM MONEY…. AND NOW SHARKS ARE AT THE TOP OF THE EXTINTION LIST…. THIS PAST YEAR HAS BEEN DEVISTATING FOR THE SHARKS…… AN ANIMAL THAT RULES THE OCEAN, TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN….IS NOW OUR PRAY….. ARE WE SO SCARED OF THEM OR IGNORANT TO THEIR NATURE THAT WE WILL KILL THEM ALL?????

~ THE FACT IS SHARKS DO NOT EAT PEOPLE, MOST SHARKS HAVE TEETH THAT CAN NOT EFFECTIVLY REMOVE FLESH, A LINE OF NEEDLES WOULD HAVE A TOUGH TIME REMOVING FLESH….. MOST SHARKS ARE NOT EQUIPT TO EAT A HUMAN, THEY WONT WASTE THERE ENERGY ATTACKING SOMETHING THEY CANT OFFICALLY EAT, THERE NORMAL PRAY CAN EITHER FIT IN THERE MOUTH OR COME CLOSE TO IT, A SIX OR 12 FOOT SHARK CAN DO ANYTHING IT WANTS TO A HUMAN …….AND IT DOESENT……YOU WOULENT RUN ALONG SIDE A PRIDE OF LIONS, YET PEOPLE SWIM WITH SHARKS EVERYDAY…..

~ I LOVE SHARKS I ALWAYS HAVE, I FREE WROTE THIS IN ABOUT TEN MINUTES LATE AT NIGHT AFTER WATCHING ” SHARK WATERS” THE MOVIE.. I AM SO ANGRY WITH THE WAY THEY ARE BEING TREATED, I HOPE YOU HAVE LEARNED SOMETHING AND HAVE A NEW UNDERSTANDING ABOUT SHARKS…….

I’m 14 and I have been a fan of sharks for as long as I can remember. I found them fascinating and wanted to learn everything about them. I watched a documentary featuring Ron and Valerie Taylor – the people I admire for changing the way most of the world thinks about them. I saw on it about Shark finning and wanted to research it. I think its horrible how so many people still think that they’re mindless man eaters when they’re not at all!
Seeing pitures and footage of them makes me feel sick and the first time I saw it I cried. Its so horrible how people can do things like that to such amazing animals like Sharks.

I really can’t believe people are killing sharks?!! I may not have been a big fan of sharks, but they’re animals and I love animals! Many people think sharks are “man-eaters” but they really aren’t. Sharks need to eat just like we do. You see in certain movies, that sharks are killing people and slaughtering them all over the place. Whoever made those kinds of movies are sick and wrong! Sharks really don’t do that- unless you really piss them off. Sharks are actually really shy creatures. When I saw the trailor of “Sharkwater” I cried. Wow… I felt so sad. Hurt another shark and I’ll KILL YOU!!!

I just feel so sad. As I mentioned before, I love absolutely ALL animals. Although I’m not such a fan of bugs, I love animals. Sharks may look scary, mean, nasty, and all those other rude stuff, but they really aren’t. Go ahead… eat shark fin soup (not that I want you to) but think about it. Think about what you’re actually eating and what people are doing to sharks. You know what I mean. SLAUGHTERING!

i’m researching sharks for homework and never knew people could be so cruel as to have shark fin soup it’s terrible and should be made illegal for sure!!!you wouldn’t like it if someone ate you in soup!!!!!!

i totally agree with CHANTAL CHERET, every thing you have stated is so true, if only people would learn the important part sharks play in our environment then they might change their ways. FU%^ING SHARK HUNTERS I WANT TO KILL YOU AND STOP YOUR VILE ACTS OF INJUSTICE AND CRUELTY!!!!

I agree with all of you guys, I am so sick of people making a big deal about sharks.The Sharks have to eat to. We need the sharks to make everything equal and if we keep on killing them like this the whole world well be in heck!CIRCLE OF LIFE PEOPLE!!!!!!

Sharks have been around for ever and we should not get in there way. Sharks are not just eating all the time. When a person get attacked by a shark they are just surching for food. Also people have proved that we are not on their menu some times they fell traped in between us.

I have done a shark dive, fantastic creatures we are invading their homes not them us! what gives humans the right to do this. your children may possibly never see a shark because of idiots like you murderers. lets respect our world for a change !

Well, if someone love sharks as soup or steak, or whatever, doesn’t matter. That’s a question of taste.
But what I can tell these poor peoples is, that they are victims, even they don’t know: Shark-meat is highly contaminated with a very perfidious nerv-poison (neurotoxin), called ‘methyl mercury’, which is 1000x times more poisoned than mercury!!
Sharks are the trash-cans of the oceans, and shark-meat is nothing else than hazardous waste! And to eat this extrem poisened shark-meat makes people sick. [See: sharkproject.org]

Damages caused by health after having shark-meat “delicacy” on the menue:
– down-syndrom for unborn babies, or brain-malfunctions, no legs, no arms, water-head;
– memory losses for adults;
– different typs of cancer for adults;
– loosen of sexual strenght or vertility for adults;
– lung or liver malfunctions for adults;
– BUT MOST DANGER: Irreversible damages of CNS (Central Nerv System) !!! of adults;
– and many more health risks!

And that are only some of the horror of eating methyl-mercury poisened (MeHg)shark-meat.
And most of the shark-species are extremly high contamindated. Dozens times more, than WHO could possibly exept in food.

Good appetite!
For all shark-meat lovers: Happy suizide! But it’ll be a slow, painfull kill, because MeHg is working constantly over years!

I believe that it is really cruel what they are doing to the poor sharks.I love animals with all of my heart and i think that the poeple who are doing this should be punished even though they have there own rites the sharks have there own rites to live.

I have watched sharkwater and it makes me mad every time I watch it, I’m doing an essay on shark finning and doing this essay is making me so mad that I cant even do anything about all those RETARDED people in the world that think they can torture so many innocent animal. They should so what it is like getting a limb or two cut off and thrown into the ocean, and lets see how much they like it. Vic Hislop is the biggest prick ever and if I ever meet him, Im going to KICK HIS ASS, I hope people have already have kicked your ass for killing some of the beiggest great whites ever recorded and now they aer endangered. He is an idiot to think he is saving lives, the next thing that is going to be endangered is his LIFE!!!!! Anyone agree with anything I’ve said???

Just becacause I am a 9 year old little girl, it does not mean I hate sharks. You people are wrong and should not be killing these wonderful creatures. You may think they are killers but some others don’t. Not all of them are dangerous. Stop killing them! It upsets me so much to know there are less and less of them and one day they will be extinct.

I CANT BELIEVE ANYONE WOULD BE PERFECTLY COMFORTABLE KILLING A POOR ANIMAL OF NATURE!:(
I am so angry with this, and I will do anything I can to stop this because I’ve never seen a shark before and many other people haven’t!!!!!!!! This is just like global warming! Polar bears die because we use STUPID hairspray! Hammer head sharks die because of you!!!!!!!:( 😦
I LOVE SHARKS!!!!

This is horrible, cruel and mean!Maybe you think they taste good, maybe you eat them cause they happen to eat things in there way so that doesn’t give ANYONE the right to kill these poor innocent creatures! If they go extinct the entire food chain could fall apart! These poor things they MUST eat once and a while! I Hate people who kill sharks! I was just learning in class today about the food chain and taking away a species. And it is HORRIBLE!

I can’t credit that some one could just cut off the sharks fins and put them back in the water alive unable to hunt or fend for themselfs, But yet fishermen that did nothing wrong are being seud because they killed a baby seal that was used for food, warmth, and oil to help arthritis. One of my good friends was saved from cancer by eating seal meat Yet sharks are being killed for just for fun or for moneythis is’nt helping us survive, but what makes no sense is its ilegal to kill sharks yet notings being done because there not cute. Its not the sharks fault its their instinct to kill. we need to do some thing to stop this.